South Australia Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy Tom Koutsantonis

South Australia’s Mineral Resource Potential On Show At Discovery Day

Victor P Taffa

South Australia’s mineral resource potential will be on show today at Discovery Day at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Industry representatives will be presented with a range of new and updated geological data revealing the prospectivity of the east, central, north, and far western areas of South Australia.

“Bold and innovative programs such as the PACE Copper Gawler Craton and Curnamona surveys are a clear example of this Government’s strong commitment to the resources sector.” Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy Tom Koutsantonis said.

“South Australia has laid the foundation for future mineral discoveries by generating freely-available high-resolution data that significantly sharpens the precision of our mapping.”

Gawler Craton Airborne Survey

Miners and explorers at Discovery Day will be presented with exciting new images of a vast mineral-rich region of South Australia that has emerged from data collected by the $10 Million PACE Copper Gawler Craton Airborne Geophysical Survey.

Sharper precision of the new maps will allow geologists to better identify mineral systems hidden under cover and help explorers to identify targets for copper and gold discoveries. Analysis being carried out by CSIRO will help to further increase geologists’ confidence in the precise depth of these mineral systems, improving the economics of drilling campaigns.

Extensive airborne survey will ultimately collect more than 1.87 Million line km of new magnetic, radiometric and elevation data to be made freely available to the public.

Curnamona Magnetotellurics

PACE Copper has also funded a survey using an innovative exploration technique that has identified an exciting new copper target in an underexplored and highly prospective region in South Australia’s Mid-North.

Magnetotelluric survey north of the Barrier Highway, which will be presented on at Discovery Day by a geologist from the University of Adelaide, has detected a geological anomaly with similarities to a survey conducted over the huge Olympic Dam deposit.

Magnetotellurics uses electrical conductivity to identify mineral pathways deep underground. Havilah Resources, which holds the mineral exploration licences over the area, are committed to additional exploration to identify drill hole locations that will test the anomaly.

“Government is backing in explorers and geologists to use innovative exploration techniques to look deep below the surface of the outback to find new mineral targets.” Minister Koutsantonis said.

“By working together, the Government and the resources industry hope to uncover the next big copper deposit to add to our catalogue of world-class ore bodies.”

Coompana Drilling Program

An overview and preliminary results of the Coompana Drilling Program will also be presented at the conference, with explorers offered the opportunity to examine rocks from deep below the world-famous Nullarbor Plain region.

12 trays of drill core will put on show from the State Government’s $3 Million PACE Copper Coompana Drilling Program, which ran from April to September in the far west of the state.

Technical report books, posters and an abstracts volume will also be made available to attendees and published online.